Bookhound and I took ourselves off to see Darkest Hour recently. Starring Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill, Kristen Scott-Thomas as his wife Clemmie and Lily James (from Downton Abbey) as the young secretary brought in to assist Churchill, Darkest Hour is a biopic of the first year of Churchill's tenure as Prime Minister during the Second World War.
We rarely go to the cinema these days unless it is a film we absolutely want to see and can't wait a minute longer, so off we trundled into Plymouth. We have, incidentally, discovered that the best seats in the house are not necessarily the VIP armchairs but the two ordinary seats above the stairwell but don’t tell anyone. One row from the back, no one in front of you, plenty of leg room and space to set out your picnic. The picnic is about dealing with the pang of hunger that overcomes us the minute we set foot in the place, and no matter how well we may have eaten beforehand. Falling back in desperation on a bucket-sized dustbin-sized helping of popcorn or a packet of jelly babies is a recipe for disaster on the scales.
I have tried not to include spoilers, but if you plan to see the film maybe come back and read this afterwards and please do leave a comment.
I know a great deal about Churchill from my mum and dad who, as working class wartime teenagers, and my dad of course as a serving Royal Marine Boy Bugler from the age of fourteen in 1939, would talk about him with a reverence, but one rooted in the realities of the war as they saw it, and with no illusions about the man or what had been at stake.
Interestingly I found my childhood diary for 1965, the year of Churchill's death.
On Sunday January 24th I have noted 'SWC died' , on Friday 29th 'Dad went to catafalque'. I remember my dad taking a day off work unpaid to travel to London where he queued for hours in the freezing cold to pay his respects.
At the bottom of the page (this being one of those diaries for Guides and Scouts and offering helpful life quotes to eleven-year-olds) is suggested this...
'Let the shipwrecks of others be your sea-marks.'
Churchill would have appreciated the sentiment, along with his own shipwrecks of which he was well aware.
The week after I was exhorted to...
'Have not thy cloak to make when it begins to rain'
Well, Churchill had been warning of the rise of fascism and Hitler's supremacy in Europe for years and by the time he took office there was precious little left with which to make a cloak. Desperate attempts to save France from falling ended at Dunkirk, whilst the Americans were keeping their distance from the conflict.
The week before my diary had pronounced that ...
'Without rivals we may become indolent.'
The quotes all serve to emphasise and perhaps explain the post-war climate that so many of us grew up in during the 1950s and early 60s, but this last one seemed particularly relevant to the film.
I knew of the difficulties and the opposition that Churchill faced from those that held previous failings (Gallipoli) and political leanings against him, so it was fascinating to watch those conflicts and machinations played out on the screen. The King's loathing slowly turned to admiration and unwavering support (fact or fiction I have no idea) but constantly flitting through my mind were analogies with the present. Who nowadays would be opposing the man (or woman) catapulted into the driving seat when the chips were down; who would be suing for peace at any price with a tyrant, plotting downfalls behind the scenes when the country faced a crisis of such immense proportions. And I am making no political statements or judgements about that, merely reflecting on the fact that, as is so often the case, some things, including life at the top, may never change.
Gary Oldman, transmogrified into Churchill after four hours in make-up each day, was extraordinary. Somehow translating the complex mix of irascible old Winston's body, persona and characteristics onto the screen...the ferocity, the devil-may-care, the irritability, the compassion, the playfulness, the fortitude and determination, but also the moments of personal sacrifice (his family in particular) self-doubt and deep despair. It is now well-known that Churchill was hounded by the Black Dog of his depression, though I'm not sure how well-known it might have been then.
Oh oh, there was so much I really wanted to come home and ask my dad, better still to have had him there with us. He would have loved this.
As a leader, and one imbued with pride, Churchill couldn't allow himself to show signs of weakness, something my dad always recalled when his ship King George V was bringing Churchill home from Africa in 1943 where he had been taken very seriously ill with pneumonia. Covered walkways were set up around the ship to shield a weak and ailing Churchill from the rank and file. My dad always understood that this was about preserving national morale, word could not get out that the leader was in a parlous state of health.
There are too many special moments in the film to convey, but one that has been found wanting by some critics was one that I found quite the opposite, a scene on the tube train where Churchill takes the King's advice and asks the people. Though a fictional construct for the film (apparently) it added an extra something...
It might be a limited representation of the 'people' but I'm not a critic so I'm not worried. The only two people I saw in that train carriage were my mum and dad saying 'we will never surrender.'
And I know that for them, despite all the hardships, that was the case.
As the opening credits rolled the woman in the seat behind us embarked on her large crackly packet of sweets. Bookhound and I glanced at each other with the look that says 'There's always one...' and prepared to be distracted. I have no idea what happened to the sweets after that because two hours later we emerged having barely noticed we were breathing.
Darkest Hour, highly recommended and watch the awards, it should scoop a few. And if you have seen it, or want to add something, please do share your thoughts.
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